1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus which manages setting data therein, a method for controlling the image forming apparatus, and a storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Commonly, image forming apparatuses such as copying machines are provided with a function for saving in its hard disk (HD) address data (fax number, mail address, etc.) constituting an address book, section ID, login user information, and other setting information of the image forming apparatus as setting data. A user can perform various pieces of processing with an image forming apparatus by using the stored setting data. For example, when transmitting a fax or mail with attached scanned data, stored address data is read out and the address book is displayed on an operation panel of the image forming apparatus. The user can transmit a fax or mail by selecting a destination address from the address book.
With this configuration, the image forming apparatus can store the above-mentioned setting data in an external apparatus such as a server apparatus via a network, receive the setting data from the external apparatus, and restore it as its own setting data. For example, the following technique is discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-173679. In the event that an external apparatus transmits wrong address data to the image forming apparatus for the purpose of importing new address data into the address book of the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus stores the wrong address data in the address book. More specifically, the external apparatus transmits to the image forming apparatus the backup data of the address book stored in the external apparatus together with a restore instruction. The image forming apparatus receives the backup data of the address book from the external apparatus and restores the address book in response to the restore instruction from the external apparatus.
However, with the above-mentioned conventional technique, since the external apparatus needs to transmit data to the image forming apparatus via the network to restore setting data, a communication error may be caused by network failure during transmission of the setting data. If a communication error occurs during transmission of the setting data to be restored, correct data cannot be transmitted until the error is corrected and therefore wrong data remains set in the image forming apparatus. This situation has been a problem that hinders the user from performing various operations by using the image forming apparatus. For example, when the setting data is address data, transmission of the setting data may take at least 10 minutes depending on the amount of information. In this case, communication between the external apparatus and the image forming apparatus is highly likely to be disconnected during the restore processing for the address data.
With the above-mentioned conventional technique, since the image forming apparatus transmits a backup file of the setting data to the external apparatus for storage in the external apparatus, the setting data exists both in the external apparatus and the image forming apparatus, which causes a security problem. Commonly, the image forming apparatus manages its users so that only users registered in the image forming apparatus can use it. When a user wants to use the image forming apparatus, the user needs to enter a relevant login ID and password registered therein. In this case, when confidential data such as an address book is stored in the external apparatus, a user not having the authority may possibly browse and edit the confidential data depending on the security setting in the destination external apparatus. Therefore, there has been a problem that, when storing the setting data of the image forming apparatus in the external apparatus, not only the security setting of the image forming apparatus but also the security setting of the destination external apparatus must be taken into consideration.